The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-08-03
WORSHIP OF THE MOON.
TRACES OF SUPERSTITION REMAIN
ING OVER FROM MEDIEVAL DAYS.

Reverence for the Horned AshtOreth.
Trivial Notions Concerning the Gross.
Days on which Ones Nails Should b0
Cut-Other Notions.
How startled many OF US would be II ne
we're forbidden the rites Of the Christian
church on the plea that we were still heather
worshipng at the shrine Of false idols-we
who 90 with our neighbors 70 offer PRAYER
and praise and hear the doctrine expounded
weekly by the clergyman of the parish, who
belong 70 the General Charitable the Dorcas
and the Old Ladies' societies, who sacrifice
our dime TO the Offertory and subscribe to the
African mission, to the new leCtern and the
church musici Yet that such IS indeed the
fact we should not be surprised TO hear If we
are people who are at all particular about
seeing the new moon over our right shoulder;
il we turn piece Of silver in our pockets for
luck at first beholding 1t; if we close our
eyes rather than see it through the window,
and gEBpe our way out doors in that condi-
ton; if we regard it az fortunate and a por-
tent of fine weather to sea the new moon In
IN the old moons arms, or with its
horns turned upward; if we consider
il sure sign of a months bad weather
when the new moon falls a Saturday; If we
bow TO it when we first see it, expecting the
consequence either of gift or the fulfillment
of wish expressed while bowling; If we re-
fuse to have our pigs killed when the moon is
on the wane, lest the pork shrink in the pot;
il we are careful as TO the especial phase Of
the moon with regard 20 the time of telling
our lumb9r-in short if we follow any of the
customs or hold any of che notions which the
Greek girls followed or held concerning
Diana. or the Persian women felt obligatory
in their reverence for the horned ashtOreth.
Ii Is with different sort Of worship, a
superstition remaining over from mediRval
days, but yet Christian one If we can call
any superstition a Christian one, that, when
q fire of soft coal refuses to burn, we stand
the poker up before 1t, thus making the sign
Of the cross with the poker and the top of the
CRATE, and by that means commanding the
evil powers of fire to obey the fire really
0beying the law that creates draught through
the heating of the poker and the consequent
upward passage Of the air. There is, how
ever, no such philosophical explanation of the
habit OF making the sign of the cross over the
foot that goes ITO Sleep" as the phrase runs
The cross Is the subject of many a trivial
notion that should spare it. remembering its
terrible and sacred history. In one legend Of
the sort it is said that lightning never strikes
the elder, because the cross made of 1t,
and in another that the aspen always shivers
In recollection Of having given its wood to
make the cross, showing on its face that one
or the other statement must be incorrect and,
things outside the pale of trihes. With as
much reason do people speak Of the red bud
- the Judas tree. the tree on which the
wretch hanged himself, or declare that the
willow weeps because it furnished rods for
the Scourge Of the Saviour.
In themselves, Of course, these fancies are
no worse than a thousand others, such as
those which assure you that you should not
for the drst time go into your house by
ALL H.
AStsr to enter with you; that it is I'M
lucky 70 have a swarm OF bees come to
you; and that your bees will not
thrive anyway IL once made the subject Of
the least dispute; and that they will cease to
gather honey if they are not told OF the death
that occurs in the house, and given their bit
Of Grape for mourning. Any one, moreover,
II as certainly engaged in the practice of the
black art and in offering obedience 70 IN
known powers as IL invoking the countenance
OF the minor deities that used to be supposed
to rule the days of the week, who regards the
old sayings concerning the days on which
ones nails should be cut: Monday, for
healthi Tuesday, for wealth. Wednesday,
Tor news; Thursday, new shoes; Friday, for
sorrow; Saturday, show you your true love
to-mcrrow"-Sunday being omitted, prob
ably as day not to be played with in this
connection, or possibly with the idea that the
utterance Of q sacred word scares away evil
spirits and undoes the whole spell, although
another notion regarding the same necessary
act OF toilette forbidS you to cut your nails
on Sunday lest you do something you are
ashamed of before the week is over, which
you are pretty sure, being human, to do at all
events
Other notions Of this nature, such as that
mushrooms do not grow after having once
been seen, that when angling If you count
your fish you will catch no more, that if rain
drops finger on the pane there win be no fur
Their rain, are hardly matters of invocation or
incarnation, but indicate an effort to observe
nature closely, even If also indicative of
partial failure III the effort or too speedy
generalization on the observation made, as In
the weatheTwise saying that there never was
q Saturday on which the sun did not shine
during some part of the day, which is not to
be claimed certainly as a superstition, but as
not sufficiently careful note of the operation
OF the weather. OF the same character is the
idaS that rats will not live in Aberdeenshire,
or In Sutherlandshire, or in certain portions Of
Argylesbire in Great Britain, and that they
desert ships about to sink and houses about
to fall probably because these are all ascer-
tanned facts, the air or soil of certain dis
tricts proving unpleasant or unwhOleSome TO
the vermin, and the state Of the timbers OF
precarious constructions being such as to at
tract the attention OF these extremely intelli-
gent little beasts. Yet, again, calling dark
agencies into play is belief in the story that
the old Irish used to know how to rhyme a
rat to death, or that rats could be induced to
leave ones premises by means of letter
written and addressed 70 them, and sealed
with butter. Were the seal made visible by
means Of PHOSPHORUS there might be a trihe
more Of reason in the business
That there is something not a little degrad-
Ing 70 the human intellect in the encourage
u1ent and pursuance Of these and similar no
tons needs no reiteration; and it is assuredly
better to order life within the limits Of hard,
bold fact than to leave in it a margin for the
rude imaginings Of the ignorant or the de-
generated worship Of the pagan, however IN
consciously it may be followed -Harper's
Haxar.
How Glass Articles Are sIade.